1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns an apparatus for processing bodies or body parts of slaughtered poultry poultry body comprising at least a breast portion having a clavicle or wishbone with left and right branches, said apparatus comprising elements for holding said poultry body aligned with respect to its plane of symmetry with left and right clavicle branches extending from either side of said plane, and for advancing said poultry body with the clavicle leading, a supporting element having flanks for inserting between the branches of the clavicle and supporting said branches at least from inside on said flanks, and scraping knives for removing meat from said clavicle, the scraping knives being controlled to move along said supporting element flanks.
2. Prior Art
An apparatus of this kind is known from DE-OS 38 11 317, for example. This document discloses an apparatus having a driven conveyor, which is equipped with carrying elements in the form of saddles for carrying and transporting the poultry to be processed with the neck opening of the poultry leading. In order to scrape free the clavicle, a block having a form adapted to the inner shape of the clavicle is controlled to be inserted between the two branches of the clavicle and so support the clavicle from inside. Scraping knives are then guided over the securely held clavicle to remove the meat.
However, as is mentioned in this document, in a considerable proportion of the processed poultry, the clavicle is broken or overstretched. Such damage can consist of several fractures, which results in free pieces of bone, which, although located in their natural position, are held in place solely by the surrounding soft tissue. The fact that fillets obtained using this apparatus contain a unacceptable amount of bone splinters from the clavicle, shows that with a product having clavicle fractured or deformed to this extent, it is not always possible to arrange the branches of the clavicle so that the clavicle may be completely scraped free.
This type of quality reduction is particularly serious, as bone splinters of this kind have as a rule quite uneven fracture surfaces which can cause serious injury to the mouth when the consumer unexpectedly bites on such a bone splinter. Such injuries regularly result in the consumer resorting to legal means to seek damages from the fillet producer. If such injuries are to be avoided the fillets have to be thoroughly inspected and maybe even trimmed, which requires extra personnel and leads to higher costs.